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Enhanced Spyware Comes to Older Versions of Windows

The telemetry spyware which lead to Windows 10 users being banned from a number of torrent trackers has now arrived for Windows 7 and 8 in Microsoft's latest batch of "updates" (archived). Attempting to stop the reporting of data to Microsoft on infected machines requires a firewall between the machine and the wider internet, though euthanasia is likely the only effective remedy in the long run for machines subjected to this infection. Any operator of serious internet ventures ought to be giving serious consideration to following in the footsteps of the torrent trackers and deal with Windows users through shunning and the quarantine of their machines. It would also likely be prudent to consider any cryptographic key material living on a machine running Windows to be in the possession of Microsoft or soon to be in the possession of Microsoft.